Stones Project Finished - September 9, 2024 @goldenoakfarm

Every morning it’s the same thing. The cat meets me at the bedroom door and won’t leave me alone. If I’m on the computer, I have to drop my left hand down, or he claws my leg. Or he’s on the mouse table. Or the desks knocking things on the floor, on purpose.

Until it’s finally 6AM and I get up to feed him. Then peace reigns. Sometimes if I’m doing windows or shades in the summer, he’s tearing through the house like a wildcat before he’s fed. Well, on Monday morning, he was tearing around and hit the dining room chair and knocked the grass out of its bowl on his feed mat.

This cat must have malfunctioning executive function because when he makes a mess, I clean it up BEFORE he gets fed, making it that much later. But he can’t see that’s what will happen, every time. Sigh…

So I finally got my post written and up and then started the laundry. I wasn’t supervised because someone was sleeping off his breakfast.

I also got the kitchen cleaned up. I got a lot more glass weights for quart jars and need to run them through the dishwasher before Tuesday morning when I finish decanting last week’s sauerkraut.

Mostly I spent the morning taking it easy after the busy long weekend.

North Corner garden – lobelia, with begonias behind

My #2 intern arrived at noon and we went out to move stones. It was about 4 wheelbarrows full and they all fit on one pallet. We got them covered and protected.

Behind the old shed, there were the stones we’d used for the old walkway. Some of them had been there decades. So I decided to move as many as we could onto the empty pallet. It started to sag in the middle, so we jammed a stone under the support.

There was still room on the pallet, but the stones were getting much bigger and heavier so we left them. But we shortened the pile by 4’. Some of the stones on the bottom were buried by the dirt they’d been there so long.

We went back to the house and cleaned up the mess and then raked the dirt smooth so if anything grows there, I can mow. It just occurred to me I have grass seed and could put it down, much to the birds’ delight… We’ll see…

Last I hung the black plastic on the line as it might rain in the night and maybe it would get cleaner. All the photos relating to the stones were taken by my #2 intern on my camera.

She left at 1PM after taking the pieces of flat stone down to the cellar for me. The job was done.

I’d hoped she could take the weedwacker to the lawnmower guy but he wasn’t going to be there. It will have to go on Tuesday.

There are 3 jobs that my son needs to finish by mid October. The first is weedwacking the back pasture so I can fix fencing and clean up fallen wood so the mulch hay guy can bushhog all the pastures.

Next he needs to pressure wash the house and shed to get the algae off the siding before I start washing windows. And he also needs to get the wood that’s coming this week (I hope) into the shed.

Larry in window behind my chair in the office

I spent the rest of the day resting and doing laundry. I also talked with a friend on the phone for an hour or so.

Supper was easy, leftover pesto chicken and lima beans.

Tuesday my helper friend is here at 9:30AM and he probably will take the weedwacker to the lawnmower guy when he first gets here. Then we are going to work on a new batch of sauerkraut.